As for Arai. Yes, he is possessed. He was probably doing some black magic of some sort and got possessed. It's all in his eyes you know. I haven't done much with this fact or thought how things will work out with him. I haven't even worked out his past too much. Laurence knows Arai somehow from before but its unspecified up to this point. I was tinkering with the idea the Arai was the apprentice of a friend of some sort.

That issue might come up again as I try to come up with some scenario for Xara to learn some more magic. She'll be more powerful soon but still untrained!

Oh! I missed an update. Sorry about that. Indeed, Rhea did begin to melt! And not only that, it allowed Xara to escape! Check it out. Don't go messing with a dragon's body. You don't know what the heck will spring out of it!

The rumors of Rhea's death have been greatly exaggerated! As much as she might like, Xara is not going to kill Rhea right there in front of her grandfather! But she is about to do something that he probably won't approve of. Dragons, are well, dragons. And if you're going to try to mess one up you'd better be prepared for the consequences!

Up till now Xara typically gets in over her head in a fight before this happens. But this time she was simply out magiced by Kyle. You see Xara was planning to release Trista from her crystal shell using her own soul. But coming back from the dead or the near dead is a tricky thing. You never know how the person affected will react. And giving up a soul, well, that's a big deal.

Kyle clearly has another approach to deal with this problem. But it requires Xara not to interfere! So the poor girl is down for the count. Xara will certainly be more careful giving another magic user control of her magic from now on that's for sure!

She looks so peaceful...and for some reason, I just imagined some Disney-esque scene, where a bunch of happy, singing birds come to land on her while some deer show up...blah, that is kind of freaky. heh

Anywho, another great page...makes me wonder where things will go from here! Is Kyle stuck wherever that crystal is? Is Carla over her illness? What sort of food crumbs might be stuck in Laurence's beard (with whiskers like his, it would be hard to get out every crumb!!)? Is this the end of this chapter? etc etc...